"Clowns" Rule (and Why)? When We Allow Cheaters To Prosper, We All Pay - Human Nature Leads to Loss of Civilizations?

Fraud* According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".^[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain. *As defined in Wikipedia When cheaters prosper, we end up with the worst possible system and to call it a free market system is an obscenity. -William Black

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Saturday, May 14, 2011

TBTF: Goldman Sachs

Simon Johnson, a British American economist, formerly chief economist of the IMF, presents his views on capital requirements for big banks, including Goldman Sachs, on stress tests and their impact on making policy, and on the need for more capital in US banks: You can see the video and read the introduction here. My buddy over at Coyote Prime has a few choice words to share (from Brandon Smith at USA Watchdog) with us about our ultimate demise being brought about by our "human nature." Yes, other animals wouldn't do this. Or even think about it. (end of snark) (And, no, don't think I'm one of the people who advocate voting for Ron Paul because they are sick of the non-choices offered, he's merely an example of what some do - I do not endorse this elite "Republican" candidate at all - (emphasis marks added - Ed.))

Saturday, May 14, 2011 Circus Clowns and Sideshow Freaks By Brandon Smith In my worst nightmares, when the lights are swallowed by the smog of some nefarious gloom and the air itself becomes a stale sarcophagus into which I am entombed, and the grim hands of putrefied fate sink their wretched grip into the thick of my neck and all seems irrevocably lost, I merely recall that soon I will awaken to the horror of a terminal America infested by career criminals and certifiable morons, and suddenly, my off-color dreams don’t seem so bad. Ultimately, there is nothing worse to me than a public majority that takes everything they hear from the mouths of political warlocks at face value. Even the fear of death is truly a pittance compared to the threat of being enveloped by a stampeding herd of frightened, stupid, human cattle. Is this melodramatic? Not at all. When a man is aware, and by aware I mean honest with himself, he inevitably suffers the pain of being certain while the rest of the world enjoys the bliss of false assumptions. We live in a culture that inflicts great punishment on those who know, and lavishes enticing but short lived rewards on those who ignore. In such a place as this, meaning disappears, and countries die. The first century satirist, Decimus Juvenalis, grief-stricken by the destruction of the Roman Republic at the hands of a succession of emperors and tyrants, wrote: “The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddle no more and long eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses.” At that time, the autocratic rulers of the empire were highly visible. Even celebrities. They played the hollow Roman Senate like a pipe organ and created elaborate events, moments of pageantry in the otherwise terrifyingly bleak lives of the citizenry, and of course, the people were thoroughly distracted while their economy, their government, and their land crumbled around them. Today, our autocratic rulers in the form of a corporate oligarchy keep rather hidden from the prying eyes of the commoners, but they wield the same power as the emperors of old, with the same obvious results. America is ripping apart at the seams. Our currency has been destroyed. Our treasury is indebted beyond the point of any return. The cost of our daily survival is quickly rising beyond any average person’s means to pay. And, our political system is a never ending parade of googly-eyed muppets singing and dancing to the tune of the false left/right paradigm. Yet, where has our attention been lately? Apparently our impending doom is not as entertaining as the Osama Bin Laden Show, which has been written and choreographed like a bad Tom Clancy novel, or a contrived episode of ‘24’ (Jack Bauer finally shoots Bin Laden square in the head with his hawk-like vision and badass marksmanship while Osama in typical TV land fashion uses a woman as a human shield. Sorry to spoil the ending for you if you haven’t seen the final episode yet). Or how about the battle of “wits” (I say this knowing full well the irony) between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, two soulless rock-em’ sock-em’ robots in a fake duel for fake polls, fake votes, and a fake presidency. Let’s not forget about the “Royal Wedding”, the eagerly awaited international event that featured a throng of throwbacks from the Dark Ages prancing around in Nutcracker outfits and partying to the tune of millions in British taxpayer dollars. Do any of these things really matter? Not in the slightest. How long must we endure this hokey carnival ride before we finally start focusing on legitimately important issues? That’s really up to us… Day after day, we allow ourselves to be conned, befuddled, and frightened by a cast of clowns and freaks. Why do we do this? How can we stop the madness? First, we have to understand how the propaganda works, before we can diffuse it. Let’s examine some of the tactics of disinformation being used today, as well as the purpose behind some of America’s most prominent distractions. “The Boogeyman Is Under Your Bed…”: A collapsing dollar, state funding on the brink, a still irradiated Japan, gasoline price spikes, and, the only thing that has lately been able draw people outside of their television and microwave fajita saturated cocoons is the orchestrated hoax of Osama Bin Laden’s death. No independently corroborated physical evidence? No independently corroborated video? Body dumped at sea in less than a day without independent verification of the identity (apparently to avoid his rising from the grave as the invincible Zombie Bin Laden)? No problem! We fully believe every word the Obama Administration says without question! Lets go do keg stands on the White House lawn, yeehaw! A boogeyman is a very powerful tool for corrupt governments. In fact, every despotic regime in history has concocted one fantasy villain after another in order to maintain their psychological stranglehold on the populace. Killing one only means a replacement is soon to be introduced. While many Americans are intelligent enough to at least express some concerns about the obviously deceitful manner in which the Bin Laden death has been handled and promoted, there is still a significant swath of the population that has invested themselves so completely in the Bin Laden myth that they will support the official story without question. Sadly, villains often become the drivers of history. Most events on the human timeline are merely reactionary movements of states and peoples to counter a dangerous antagonist, whether actual or fabricated. Very rarely do people act in concert to change the shape of their society or their surroundings without a symbolic devil to spur them on. This is not to say that there are not real ghouls to be dealt with in every generation, but problems surface when we become ADDICTED to the idea of villains. We become so lethargic when it comes to putting in the effort of determining our own destinies that soon we start to need monsters to inspire us to take action in life. We welcome governments to conjure enemies for us because it makes us feel as though we have purpose again. As though we are a “team”. Just look at the deluded lemmings that roamed D.C. enthralled at the unconfirmed and unsupported claim of Bin Laden’s death. A civilization caught in this circle of pure reaction usually devolves into something utterly pathetic; a people without principles feeding on each other for comfort. Interestingly, the fermentation of amoral or destructive behavior is found most often in power structures, like governments and corporate institutions, where the desire for overt control can be satisfied. It is at the top of the pyramid that we find the bottom of the barrel in terms of humanity. So, it is not strange at all to consider the fact that elitists seek to create monsters out of thin air, like the “axis of evil”, terrorists, lone gunman, homegrown extremists, barter networkers, or Amish dairy farmers. They know that people seek out dragons to slay and so provide proxies and facsimiles. If they didn’t, the masses may turn their attentions towards a real threat, like the elites themselves. Again, this is common sense and a consistent tactic, one which has been admitted to openly by establishment authorities for decades. The true boogeymen are not under your bed, they are not your next door neighbors who participate in activist groups, they are not right wing extremists, they are not even men in caves in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The only monsters worth so much attention and dedication are those that are closest to us. To find them, we have only to follow where all our money goes, where all our votes are misspent, and where all our decisions are made without our consent. “If You Didn’t Vote, You Have No Right To Complain…”: Perhaps the most effective scam of all time is the construction of the false left/right paradigm. Anyone who does not understand this fundamental fallacy of our political system will never be able to understand the bigger picture of how our government works or why or “elected” officials do the things they do. If you cannot accept the fact that both major parties are essentially the same, supporting the same primary legislation and differing only in rhetoric, then you will probably attribute the constant failings of our leadership to “greed” or “stupidity”. This is simply not the case. When Obama went back on his election year promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pull troops out (there are still thousands of troops and private contractors in Iraq too, for those that bought the second pullout lie), for instance, or when he decided to support the Patriot Acts after criticizing them, this was not because he has a bad memory, or even because he wanted to win your vote. He made promises and then nixed them because that’s HIS JOB; to perpetuate the false idea that the Democratic Party is anti-war, and different from the Republican Party. When Bush Jr. ran on a platform of limited government and conservatism, then tripled the size of the Federal Government, it was not because he is an idiot man-child. It is because it was his job to pretend as if he cared about traditional conservative values, while instituting socialist globalist programs under our noses. When a hypocrite and a bottom feeder like Donald Trump, a confessed liberal on taxes, health care, and trade, a man who stooped to using eminent domain in an effort to steal an elderly woman’s home so he could pour a limousine parking lot on top of it, is suddenly presented as the new hope of the Republican Party and limited government, I think its time to pack up our preconceptions about there being any such thing as a two party system. In the end, most political leaders are more like circus clowns, meant to amuse us. They bumble about the center ring spraying seltzer water at each other and cracking each other’s skulls with rubber mallets, but who really cares which clown wins this slapstick contest? They may make us feel as though we have a choice, and thus a voice, in our government, but at bottom, it is the ringmaster that decides the course of the show. The clowns are a sidenote. Not voting for either of them seems to be the only option left, or, voting with one’s conscience for a candidate that’s not an establishment favorite (aka Ron Paul). “War Is Necessary To Perpetuate Freedom…”: War leads to many things, but rarely does it ever lead to people being more readily free. WWI (a fabricated war) led to the implosion of Germany and the subsequent rise of National Socialism (a banker-fabricated political movement) which led to WWII, which then destroyed most of Europe making way for the construction of the EU (a banker-fabricated supranational union), basically a more subversive and insidious form of socialism with even greater control and unaccountability. Most wars are planned like cross country vacations; you may deviate here and there, but eventually you’ll find yourself at the destination mapped out for you before hand. The vitriol brewing in the Middle East today is no exception. Wars not only break down and then centralize sovereign systems, they also rally the masses to support governments they otherwise might oppose. Wars create fear, not to mention the thrill of tribal victory. Wars collectivize societies, dissuade and shame individualism, and bring everyone under a single banner and a single philosophy. Where I might be applauded today as a writer for speaking out against the nonsensical involvement of the U.S. and the EU in an internal civil war in Libya, I may be attacked tomorrow if a terrorist bombing occurs in Libya’s name. Where I might point out that only a year ago and despite his disturbingly violent nature Gaddafi was the globalist go-to man for the African Union, and supported widely by the UN for purchasing African Union memberships for poorer nations with Libyan oil money, others might say that I am undermining U.S. solidarity in the “war on terror” by being factual. Wars have the ability to turn the common man into a mini-tyrant, not to mention a censor for the establishment. In the end, if you want to distract the public away from the horrifying strife of economic collapse or even hyperinflation, the only conceivable avenue is war. Nearly every engineered financial disaster in modern history has been followed by an engineered conflict to muffle the cries for new management. In America’s case, these wars are always preempted with calls for the “spread of democracy”, making the target country more than a target, but a monster (as discussed earlier) and making us the knight in shining armor off to rescue the poor helpless villagers of the planet. We play out the myth then find that we have again only furthered the aims of globalists, and weakened ourselves in the process. The Show Must Go On: The world that we experience through what is often termed the “mainstream” is, quite simply, an illusion. The life many live is not real, but an elaborate production. A rented life. A life they do not own. Is this not the stuff of “conspiracy”? That is the wrong question. Is this the stuff of fact? THAT is what we should be asking ourselves. It is time for the American people to stop fooling around with what is “probable”, or “more likely”. Occam’s Razor (the misinterpreted version of the principle) has never been applicable in terms of human systems, and especially not those dominated by a handful of men, as most usually are. The “simplest explanation” for a social situation is rarely the correct one, and is completely up for interpretation. I would replace the word “simplest” with the word “practical”. What I deem as practical (the influence of elite minorities over the flow of historical events) may be considered outlandish by others because their perception is skewed by their lack of knowledge. Perception changes with knowledge. Practical explanation changes with awareness. The underlying truth, after all is said and done, is constant. The truth does not change, we change. Propagandists have always understood this condition, and the science of manipulating perception with diversion, bias, and fear, is ever present today. Whether it’s a faux attack on an Al-Qaeda compound containing a Bin Laden body we’ll never see first hand, a sham of an election with marionette candidates, or a war in Libya that is never officially categorized as a war, you will be lied to by government, and these lies, whether you accept it or not, will eventually hurt you, or someone you care about. Recognizing the distraction is the first step in dismantling disinformation. Knowing what we are facing is the key to undoing the damage done. “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” From ‘Propaganda’ by Edward Bernays (named one of Life Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 20th Century).

You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com. _________________